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Abraham's bosom. Who's ever heard of Abraham's bosom today? Yeah, we've all, we've all heard about it. But before I get into that, I want to give you the context here of where we're starting off in Deuteronomy chapter 32. So you can see here that if you look back at verse 30 in Deuteronomy 31, it says, And Moses spake in the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song until they were ended. And so that's what we just read. Now to give you the seriousness of this, go to Deuteronomy 31 and look at verse 16. So Deuteronomy chapter 31, look at verse 16. We'll back up here and read from there. So Deuteronomy 31 16 it says, And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thou art, or thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, and this people will rise up and go whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land whither they go to be among them and will forsake me and break my covenant, which I have made with them. Right? So God's saying, Hey, look, after Moses dies after Joshua's done with his leadership, I know that these guys are gonna go whoring after other gods are gonna go away from me. They're gonna, you know, just do the exact opposite of what I have taught them, you know, since they left the wilderness right now, looking for 17 says, Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured. And many evils and troubles shall befall them so that they will say in that day are not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us. And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought and that they are turned onto other gods. Now, therefore, write ye this song for you and teach it. The Children of Israel put it in their mouths that this song may be a witness for me against the Children of Israel for when I have brought them into the land which I swear into their fathers that flow with milk and honey, and they shall have eaten and filled themselves and wax and fat, then will they turn unto other gods and serve them and provoke me and break my covenant. Not very high hopes for the Children of Israel there, the nation of Israel, right? Now jump down to verse 28. It says, Gather unto me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears and call heaven and earth to record against them. For I know that after my death, ye will utterly corrupt yourselves and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you, and evil will befall you in the latter days, because ye will do evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands. And then verse 30. And Moses spake in the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song until they were ended. You see, even though God told Moses, Hey, look, these guys are going to depart from me, they're going to turn to their wicked ways. He says, so because I know that I want you to teach doctrine, I want you to put this song into the words, because the idea was that if they learn the song, they learn God's truth, they learn his word, they hide it in their hearts so that they would not sin against God. That was the expectation. That was the intention there. So then it brings us to verse one of chapter 32. And look at this, it says give ear O ye heavens, and I will speak and hear O earth the words of my mouth. Now, verse two, my doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass. So we just read that God said, Hey, look, these guys are going to turn away from me, they're going to go worship other gods, they're going to get into great sin. And then I'm going to forsake, I'm going to turn my back on them. And then they're going to realize that they made a mistake. Right. And so the beginning of the song, what is emphasized here, it's doctrine, right? Because when you lose doctrine, when you don't have right doctrine, you will fall astray, you will go off into strange gods, strange things, and you will just you just blind, you just have no way about you. That's what he's saying here. So the first thing I just got three things I want you to take away from verse two here, right? And number one is that we can see the urgency of doctrine, right? Look down there, he says my doctrine shall drop as rain. That is a very, very serious statement that God saying, Hey, my doctrine, my teaching, it will prevail, right? God has a sense of urgency regarding the truth. He wants his truth to be preached. He wants his truth to be hidden in your hearts. And he wants his truth to be followed every single day. That's why he says that. So number one, we see the urgency of doctrine. Now, number two, we see the power of God's doctrine, right? Because after he says my doctrine shall drop as the rain, says my speech shall distill as the do, right? So he says my speech shall so God's word will go forth. There's no way to change it. Look, there's people that just fight tooth and nail over false doctrine in, you know, these, these false prophets that we have out there today that want to teach this garbage, like Abraham's bosom, you know, they, they, they go to great lengths to try to force that, you know, on people and on their congregations. And it's not just that doctrine, right? It's all false doctrine. But God says, you know what? My speech shall distill as the do. So it shall God's word will prevail. His truth always comes out. And we see that here. Now, number three, we see the effect of God's doctrine, right? We see the effect. He says, my speech shall distill as the do, as the small rain upon the tender herb and as the showers upon the grass. So God's saying, Hey, look, my doctrine will distill. What does distill mean? It means to purify, right? Brother Rick, he likes to drink distilled water. He got us hooked on that. You know, he's got, if you want coffee back there, you know, you can go grab some. It's, you know, we got distilled water in there. I think he told me, he told me that that purifies the cure, right? It stops the hard minerals from gunking it up. But nonetheless, it's water that's been purified. That's been clean. It doesn't have like the fluoride and all the other garbage in it, right? And that's what God likens his word onto his teachings, his doctrine. It distills, it purifies. If you just listen to him, be open-minded. Look, I don't know if there's anybody in here that believes in this doctrine. Look at all, if not, at one point in time, most of us were probably, you know, fooled by it at some, you know, at some point in our lives. But nonetheless, there's three things to take away from this verse here. Number one is the urgency of doctrine. Number two is the power of God's doctrine. And number three is the effect of God's doctrine. It will distill. And I'm going to read for you, and I'm going to preach to you out of the Bible, and this Bible will distill your views on this false doctrine of Abraham's bosom. So look at verse three. It says, because I will publish the name of the Lord, ascribe ye greatness unto our God. And remember what we're dealing with here, we're dealing with doctrine. What is the key to not go and backslide on God here? It's doctrine, right? The beginning of this song that Moses is teaching unto the children of Israel, Israel, I'm sorry, he's emphasizing doctrine, God's laws, God's teaching, right? And then in verse three says, because I will publish the name of the Lord ascribe ye greatness unto our God. So we are to attribute or to ascribe greatness unto our God, right? That's what he's saying. So the fourth thing I want you to understand is that is exactly that, that we need to make sure that we are always ascribing greatness unto our God, right? We should never look at a doctrine like this and say, okay, look, it's not that bad. Okay, so they're a little off. So they believe a little bit differently. That's not right. That's not ascribing greatness unto our God, right? We need to stand up for the truth and what God teaches us in his word. Now look at verse four, it says, he is the rock. His work is perfect for all his ways are judgment, a God of truth in without iniquity, just and right is he. So it says that his ways are judgment. And we know that judgment is a bad word today. People don't like that word judgment, right? Don't judge me. Why are you judging me? You know, and anytime somebody says that to you, like, why are you judging me? You know, the first thing that needs to come out of your mouth is, well, what's wrong with that? You know, because if you think about it, they're judging you and judging them or what they believe rather. But nonetheless, right? If we're to ascribe greatness unto our God, then we need to be like him and strive to be like him. And part of that is judgment. We need to look at the things that are taught out here in the world. And we need to go to the Bible so that we can judge whether those things are right. That's what he's saying here. So number five is that we see that his ways are judgment. Now look at verse five. They have corrupted themselves. Their spot is not the spot of his children. They are a perverse and crooked generation. And that is what we do not want to become as a church. So number six, we see that there is a cause, right? People have corrupted themselves there in verse five. This says they are a perverse and crooked generation. So what does that tell us when we lack doctrine, when we lack God's truth, we will become crooked and even possibly perverse or, you know, twisted in what we believe about the Bible. And that doesn't, you know, that is not something that we want to go and be a part of. Look at verse six. Do you thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is not he thy father that hath bought thee? Hath he not made thee and established thee? The word requite there means basically to repay. So for example, love that has not been requited or requited is love that has not been returned or paid back. You know, and what, what Moses is telling these, these guys here, he's like, do you thus requite the Lord? You know, it's like, are you trying to repay God evil for the good that he's done? I mean, do we want to, you and we never want to get to a place in our lives where we forget what God's done for us. Right. That's why we have, um, fellowship, you know, and that's why we have, you know, uh, our prayer times on Wednesdays, you know, because we want to bring the things that God's done for us personally in our lives before the church. Right. Because that's motivating. That's encouraging. That's what he's saying there. Right. When we don't do that, when we get in the habit of not telling other people what God's done for us and the great things and the great miracles that he's done in our lives, you know, it just really takes a lot away from the Christian faith. You know, God does a lot of great things for us and we need to requite him, you know, for the, the, the, the, the kindness and the gentleness and the meekness that he's had towards us. Right. Remember we need to hold fast our profession of faith. So point number seven here real quick, just before we get started is that we see God's expectation is to be wise and doctrine. And we talked about wisdom last week. I don't want to repeat. I don't want to repreach that at all, but nonetheless, I think it's important here that, Hey, God's saying that the key for this nation to not go astray, that all they had to do was to retain right doctrine. It is very important. Look, bad doctrine will corrupt you. It corrupts churches. It causes them to stop soul winning. It causes them to stop reaching the community. It causes them to just become complacent in their own Christian lives. And they're so turned around. They're so backwards that they just have no idea what's going on anymore. You go up to most Christians today, you know, and they'll be like, Hey, you know, have you watched this, you know, rated R movie and it's like, dude, are you crazy? You know, do you really think that that's, do you really think that's what God wants, you know, and why is that? Because people are going to churches these days that are not preaching them right doctrine because it's judgment because it's hard because the things in the Bible aren't always easy to digest, you know, and you know, but we got to be stronger than that. We have to be better than that. So like I said, we're going to preach about Abraham's bosom. Now, so keep your place here because we are going to come back to Deuteronomy later in the sermon, but I'm just going to want you to listen for a little bit. Go to Exodus chapter four. Now, while you're turning to Exodus chapter four, I just want to say the first thing about Abraham's bosom is that it's not mentioned in the Bible anywhere. Okay. It's really important that every single person in here understands that there is no Bible verse that says anything about a place called Abraham's bosom. There's not one verse, you know, I'm really tempted to just close this Bible right now and preach about something else. I mean, think about it. There is no verse in this Bible, none, zero, no, not one. There is no verse, no verse, no verse. Does everybody understand that there is no verse that teaches about a place called Abraham's bosom? No, not one. So if you want to go to sleep from this point on, that's fine. Just remember that point. There is no verse that teaches a place called Abraham's bosom, not one. So you're there in Exodus chapter four, look at verse six. What is a bosom? Okay. Exodus four, look at verse six. And the Lord said, furthermore unto him, put down nine. And this is God talking to Moses. It says, and the Lord said, furthermore unto him, put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into the, his bosom. And when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. So this is the situation here. God's like, Hey, put your hand in your bosom. So he goes like this. Now he might not have had a coat on like this. You know that he had his garments on, but nonetheless, he put his hand in his bosom, pulled it out. All of a sudden his hand is leprous as snow. Does everybody understand that? And then you know, the, you know, the story from there, he says, put it back. God heals him. Okay. But the bosom is this part of the body. It's the chest area of your body. It's a body part. It is not a place. Would anybody assume that this verse here is talking about a place? I don't think so. Go to Genesis chapter 16. I was going to save this verse for later, but I'm going to fit it in here right now. Go to Genesis 16 and we'll look at verse number five. I think it is. Yeah. Genesis 16 and look at verse number five. This is interesting here. You, you know the story behind here. It says, look, Genesis 16 verse five says, and Sarah, I said unto Abram, my wrong be upon thee. I have given my maid into thy bosom. And when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes, the Lord judge between me and the, so, you know, the story that God promised Abraham a son, you know, and in him and Sarah, they're talking about it. You know, she's like, I'm well stricken years. I'm old. How is this going to happen? Maybe God wants you to have my maid Hagar. So he takes the maid Hagar has a child named Ishmael. But nonetheless, with that in mind, look at this verse again. And Sarah, I said unto Abram, my wrong be upon thee. Right? So she's admitting fault. She knows she was wrong. They should have waited upon the Lord. I have given my maid into thy bosom. So this is the first mention of bosom and Abraham in the same verse in the Bible. Isn't that interesting that it's not a place in the center of the earth called paradise, right? What is it? It's his body part. It's a region of his body, right? She's basically saying, Hey, I was wrong for giving my maid unto you to have a child. Does everybody understand that? I'm not going to go beyond that right now, but the context is clear here. It is not a place in the center of the earth where the dead went. Does everybody get that? It is. So, so my question is, how did we get from Genesis 16 five all the way to Luke 16 and all of a sudden this became a place, right? But we're going to talk about that. So just listen to this here. I went to a Baptist church's website because there's a lot of different variations regarding this doctrine of Abraham's bosom. Basically what it is, it's the teaching that when the old Testament saints died, they went to the center of the earth. One, one compartment, depending on what church or who teaches it. One compartment is like the good side called paradise, right? And then the other side is either she'll Hades or, or hell, right? The bad side, the, the part where the fire and stuff. And the question I have for you is, is that true? Is that what the Bible teaches? And if not, then we need to believe the Bible because we know that God is always right. So I went to a Baptist website and you know, from what I could tell, they were saved. So I'm not going to trash. I'm not going to say their name, but they had a lot of information on what they teach about this subject. And so I want to read that for you. So what is the doctrine of Abraham's bosom? And this is according to them. And remember, what is the first thing we need to understand about this doctrine? It's not mentioned in the Bible. There is no verse in the Bible that talks about a place called Abraham's bosom. So here's what they say. What is the doctrine of Abraham's bosom? It's a phrase used to describe where the old Testament saints went after they died. Okay. Again, where's your Bible verse number two, they say it is only by Jesus finished work on the cross that anyone in any time period goes to heaven. That includes old Testament saints. They did not go to heaven when they died because Jesus had not come to earth and lived a life we could not live and died the death we should have died. His work alone opened the way to the father in heaven. So first two statements that they teach about Abraham's bosom, that's what most churches are going to teach. And what that leads people to teach also is that people got saved differently in the old Testament than they do now. And we've gone over this before. We understand that this, the, the form, the formula for getting saved is the same as it was back then. They just didn't call on the name of Jesus. They called on the name of God, almighty or Jehovah God, right? Depending on, on what time, like, you know, Abraham knew him as God almighty. Moses, our God revealed himself unto Moses as Jehovah God. So it was the same thing. They weren't saved by mixing faith and works in the old Testament. They were saved by trusting and calling upon the name of the Lord. And you could go back to Genesis chapter four to read, you know, how men began to call upon the name of the Lord, even back then, but I don't want to get too far off into that. Let's just keep reading here. It says, so where did the old Testament saints go before Jesus has finished work? Then they say, we know that only Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, John 14, six, and you know, amen. We believe that. And the old Testament saints did not know the way, you know, you're borderlining blasphemy by saying that because there's a ton of verses that say, otherwise, Romans chapter four, read the book of Galatians. Prior to Jesus atonement, the old Testament saints went to a place called Abraham's bosom. Again, no reference, no Bible verse. In Luke 16, Jesus describes two distinctly different places where man's soul went after death. And this is, remember, this is what they're saying. Number one, the place of comfort called Abraham's bosom. And number two, the place of torment, which we refer to as hell. Now turn to Ephesians chapter four. We are going to obviously get to Luke 16, but not till later. So turn to Ephesians four, and I'm going to read for you the rest of this stuff here. They go on to say Abraham's bosom was not heaven. Okay. That's what they say. Abraham's bosom was not heaven. Heaven is defined as the place where God dwells. Geographically, we think of it as being up above, beyond the heaven that we see, the one in which birds and airplanes fly. And you know, they are right. Heaven is a place where God dwells. And we need to, we need to remember that the place where God dwells is even beyond the heavens in which the sun, moon and stars exist. God's dwelling place is considered to be the highest of heavens. Luke, 1938, the heaven of heavens, Deuteronomy 10, and they cite some other verses and is referred to in the Bible as the third heaven. Okay. So they've got, they know where heaven, you know, okay, praise God. These people know where heaven is. It's above the sky. Okay. At least they're not that stupid where they don't realize that. So I'll give them credit for that. All right. Then they go on to say, where was Abraham's bosom? Abraham's bosom was located down below the heavens in the depths of the earth. Jesus referred to it as the heart of the earth. Now the question I have is, is that true? Is that what Jesus said? Cause they cite Matthew chapter 12 verse 40 where Jesus said that as this, as Jonas was three days, three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the son of man be three days, three nights in the heart of the earth, right? It doesn't say anything in that verse about Abraham's bosom or about paradise. They are misled. They have gone astray. They have gone crooked as it talks about in Deuteronomy 32. Let's see where am I here? Uh, okay. Where was Abraham's bosom? Okay. Then they say, since this was not sufficient to completely atone for sins, those who died in faith went to Abraham's bosom and waited until the time their sins would be paid for completely. They waited for the promised seed, the rescuer, the one who was promised in the garden to their father Abraham and promised again to their most exalted earthly King. So they say that when Old Testament saints died, if they were saved, if they had a good combination of faith and works, they went to Abraham's bosom. They did not go to be with God because their sins hadn't been paid for yet, even though the Bible says that Jesus was lamb slain from the foundation of the world, right? He's just, he's eternal, but they, they don't want to talk about that. And then it says, when Jesus offered himself in payment for the penalty of man's sins, his shed blood made the complete and final atonement for sins. And when Jesus ascended into heaven, he led the old Testament saints from Abraham's bosom to their new dwelling place with him. And they quote Ephesians chapter four verse eight and say in the heavens of heaven. So they say Ephesians chapter four verse eight is their, their go to verse that proves that Jesus went down to Abraham's bosom, gathered these people up and then brought them to heaven. With all lowliness and meekness with long suffering forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit even as ye are called in one hope of your calling. Right. Look at verse five one Lord one faith one baptism one God and father of all who is above all and through all and in you and all. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. And if you if you've read Ephesians chapter two or you go out soul and you probably use Ephesians chapter two verse eight right and we understand that uh for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should both so we understand Paul's expecting you to have read chapter two and understand that we are saved because of God's free gift his grace right through going through faith and apart from works we're not saved by mixing faith and works and we've talked about that before you're saved solely by trusting on Jesus Christ not on your works right and so he's talking about that that is a gift right because think about it if you had to work and believe and just live a good life if you had to do both of those that's not really a gift right that's that's a bad situation because none of us can stop sending nobody in here can stop sending the Bible says the thought of foolishness of sin and everybody in here has at least had that and and again I'm gonna get off off on and this teaching here is probably what stumps most Christians about the doctrine of Abraham's bosom because they'll get hit with this verse and not know how to explain it away not know what the Bible says you know and so we're gonna have to get a little bit deep so hopefully I can explain this clearly and you can understand but turn to Isaiah chapter 42 turn to Isaiah chapter 42 so captivity captive and gave gifts unto men and and at first glance you should know that's not true Ephesians chapter two disproves that right he's basically saying that hey you know his the finished work on the cross you know is obviously what made it possible for us to be saved right he paid the bill for the wages of sin as death but the gift of of god is eternal life through Jesus Christ oh lord so we understand that that is the gift that he's talking about here but they're saying well he led captivity captive so is you know is is that true here verse nine he i'm going to read for you verse nine it says now that he ascended what is it a but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth right right and then they'll say see he they're saying that verse eight says that he took the captives and brought them up there well what does the word captive mean if you're captive if you've been taken prisoner you've been captured does that sound like paradise does that sound like the good place of hell i mean come on if if if you know if if abraham's bosom is a place right next to hell and it's the good place it doesn't make sense the definition of captive is a person who has been taken prisoner and like i said that doesn't sound like like a good thing now you're there in isaiah 42 i'm going to read for you the next verse that they'll jump you to here which you don't have to turn there you can write this down but it's first peter chapter three verse nineteen right where the bible says but which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison which sometimes were disobedient when once the long suffering god waited in the days of noah while the ark was a preparing wherein few that is eight souls were saved by water and if you know the story of noah in the ark how were they saved by water because the water came obviously and wiped away all the wickedness um away but they'll say this is it right here verse 19 this this is another smoking gun they have they'll say by which he went and preached into the spirits in prison so when jesus was on the cross and he told the thief hey today you will be with me that will be with me in paradise right they say okay see jesus went to paradise which is another word for abraham's bosom a place he went down there and he preached to the captives he preached to the spirits well again why if if they were already saved why would he have to preach to him again if if it was a good place if it was a good compartment why would he have to convince them to leave there and to go to heaven that doesn't make sense i had a pentecostal neighbor one time that brought these two verses onto me he's he brought me to ephoeus chapter four and then he brought me right over here he says jesus went to hell and or abraham's bosom he went and he preached to the guys in abraham's bosom because you know that's what he had to do and then he went over to hell right because we'll look at it later acts chapter two that jesus soul went to hell he went over to hell and he preached to them and then those that wanted to get saved you know they got saved and he brought him up look that is foolishness that is not true you can't find any scripture at all anywhere in the bible to prove that point but nonetheless you're there in verse uh isaiah 42 look at verse five isaiah 42 verse five let's take a look at this prisoner or this captive right because somebody who's taken captive is a prisoner and you need to keep that in your mind isaiah 42 look at verse five thus saith god the lord he that created the heavens and stretched them out he that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it he that giveth breath unto the people upon it and spirit to them that walk therein i the lord have called thee in righteousness and i and will be and hold thine hand and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people for a light of the gentiles right so he's talking about how he's going to be taking care of the gentiles in the future verse 7 to open the blind eyes to bring out the prisoners from the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house what he's teaching there is that when you are before you got saved you were a prisoner you were a slave to sin you were under the law you were you're basically cursed all of us were right that's why it is a gift to be saved so when he left led captivity captive what it's saying is that he's made it possible for people to be saved whether old testament or new testament he's the land slain from the foundation of the world look at verse seven again what was the point what is the purpose of jesus christ to open the blind eyes to bring out the prisoners from the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house right and isn't that what the word of god does i mean what does ephish or i'm sorry hebrew chapter 4 verse 1 say for the word of god is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword dividing even you know i had it memorized but i forgot it so um but you get the point it's a it's a sharp two-edged sword god's word is right what does it do it sets you free right it sets your soul and your spirit it quickens your soul and your spirit together and it separates you from your body creating a new man inside of you right so you have two natures now that's what it's basically what he's talking about here so he's led the captivity captive he has led us out of prison right before you're saved you are literally in prison go to isaiah 61 go over to isaiah chapter 61 and look at verse 1 isaiah 61 verse 1 the spirit of the lord god is upon me because the lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound and again there's tons of verses in the bible about how before you're saved you are bound right you are a prisoner you need to be set free and that was the mission of jesus christ to lead captivity captive that is what ephesians chapter 4 verse 8 is talking about that is what first peter chapter 3 verse 18 is talking about when he went and preached to the spirits in prison that was what he's doing when you preach the gospel to somebody today he's still doing that because jesus is the word he's still piercing people's souls in uh and spirits today he is literally rescuing people from prison when you got saved you you're basically the prison doors were open you walked out you are now free you are saved forever there is nothing you can ever do to change that in isaiah 61 verse 1 that's what it's talking about here right it says the spirit of the lord god is upon me because the lord hath anointed me to preach right to proclaim to teach good tidings unto the meek right why does it say meek because you have to be meek you have to be humble you have to understand that you're a sinner and that you need to be saved right so that's why he says unto me he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty right to proclaim freedom is what he's talking about to the captives hey good news for you you don't have to go to hell you don't have to work the rest of your life you don't have to go to church every sunday and try to follow the commandments to get to heaven it's a free gift it's a free gift to be saved that's what he's saying here it's not prison you are no longer bound you can get saved and be freed so turn to luke chapter 4 go to luke chapter 4 if you just study out the word captive prisoner bound those three words in the bible you're going to see very quickly that that is what first peter chapter 3 is talking about that's what ephesians chapter 4 is talking about it's not talking about that jesus went to hell and actually preached to the people in hell or that he preached to the people in abraham's bosom it wouldn't make any sense it doesn't make any sense to go to a place called paradise to try to convince them to leave to go to a bed i i feel stupid for going up here and saying that you know and i'm like stumbling over my words because i'm listening to myself and i'm like am i did i really write a sermon about this but nonetheless these things need to be preached you know and as we read in deuteronomy 32 you know doctrine is important we need to have these things in our hearts you know and if it helps you to sing them then let's sing them but luke chapter 4 look at verse 18 the spirit of the lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised what does that sound like that sounds like isaiah 61 verse 1 that's exactly what jesus is doing here right he is the word he knows the word and he's preaching what we just read in isaiah now look at verse 19 to preach the acceptable year of the lord and he closed the book and gave it again to the minister and sat down and the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him and he began to say unto them this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears so you need to understand that that scripture the scriptures i just read in luke 4 and in isaiah 61 verse 1 when were they fulfilled they were fulfilled the moment that jesus read them in the bible right they were fulfilled after he died on the cross and went down to abraham's bosom and preached to them those people and then brought them to heaven that's that's not what it says at all he said this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears that's what he said this day he didn't say after he goes on the cross and dies and goes down to hell and brings them back up right look at verse 21 and he began to say unto them this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears and the question i have for you is do you believe that do you believe the bible or do you believe something else you see in order to believe in abraham's bosom you have to be educated into that right i was just talking about this with these guys before the service you know when i was uh when i was a very young christian in my early 20s um i i read matthew mark luke and john you know and i think i was on ax and somebody gave me this book it was called charting the end times by tim la hey and i opened that up and i you know he had that big long chart about abraham's bosom and paradise and all this stuff and i remember like scratching my head trying to make sense of it i was like well these guys are obviously smarter than me maybe they're right you know maybe i misunderstood it and so i kind of you know played both sides of the fence as i went throughout life until it was actually taught to me like no that is wrong it's not in the bible you know so nonetheless you know it is possible to get swayed by these things most of us at one point in our lives were probably fooled by this if not praise god you know you're you're smarter but it just goes to show you what happens when you're not rooted and grounded in the truth so go to luke 16 and let's take a look at the story of the rich man and lazarus and let's see if there's a place called abraham's bosom is there a place or was there a place called abraham's bosom in the bible and don't listen to these people that want to say well if you go back to the greek and hebrew and the italian and all that look they don't speak those languages and you know that right they're just doing that because it's not in the bible they have no faith that god's preserved his word and so they want to play games and play stupid tricks on you don't let them fool you so luke 16 look at verse 19 there was a rich man i'm sorry there was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day i think this guy might have lived in bogus basin over here but look at verse 20 and there was a certain beggar named lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table moreover the dogs came and licked his sores and it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angel i'm sorry by the angels into abraham's bosom now stop right there is that a place or is that a person right you got to think about that the rich man also died and was buried now this is very interesting here look at the next verse and in hell he lift up his eyes being in torment and seeth abraham afar off and lazarus in his bosom remember what we read in genesis 16 five about abraham abraham's bosom a lot of bees there right who was in his bosom it was hegar right in his chest area right abraham's bosom back up one more time look at verse 22 i really want you to understand this and it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into abraham's bosom so we're talking about the person not the place the person not a place abraham's bosom the rich man died also and was buried so it's interesting this rich guy he dies right he gets buried he probably has some big old you know elaborate funeral and whatnot and then it says and in hell he lift up his eyes being in torments well what does that mean being in torments here go to mark chapter nine keep your place that we're going to come right back to i just feel like i need to explain this here mark chapter nine it's good for you to have these verses in the highlighted or or memorize them or know where to go to them especially when you're preaching the gospel to somebody and they have a question about this or they have a question about hell in general you know you can you can refer this here so it says in luke 16 23 and in hell he left up his eyes being in torments here's the kind of torments that this man was in look at mark chapter nine matthew mark mark chapter nine look at verse 43 mark chapter nine verse 43 this is what she's saying here and if i hand offend thee cut it off it is better for thee to enter into life maimed than having two hands to go into hell into the fire that never shall be quenched so we can see right off the bat the hell is a place where the fire is never quenched and he's not teaching work salvation here he's simply saying that whatever is holding you back from getting saved you need to let go of that because it's better for you to not have that and go to heaven than it is for you to go to hell verse 44 where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched so number two again the fire is not quenched you really want to understand that and the worms don't die verse 45 and if thy foot offend thee cut it off it is better for thee to enter halt into life than having two feet to be cast into hell into the fire again listen look at this that never shall be quenched verse 46 again where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched verse 47 and if thy eye offend thee plug it out for it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of god with one eye than having two eyes be cast into hell fire verse 48 where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched right so what do you take away from that it's not a place that you want to go it's a place of torment right it's not the other side of a place called abraham's bosom by the way it is a horrible place this is the torment that this man in luke chapter 16 is dealing with here so it's important to understand that so go back to luke 16 and let's read this again and in hell he lift up his eyes being in torments right mark chapter 9 we just read that and seeth abraham afar off and lazarus in his bosom so who does this rich man see when he lifts up his eyes he sees the person abraham not the place does everybody understand that he sees a person not a place it's a person right and it says he'd lift up his eyes what does that mean look look at me right now it says he lift up his eyes he's looking up right when people are in torments or in pain they often will jerk up like that they will lift up so he's looking in an upward direction right if abraham's bosom was on the side or like a parallel type thing then why wouldn't he be looking straight ahead and some people might you know say i'm crazy but whatever look at verse 24 and he cried and said father abraham look do you need more proof do you really need more proof who's he talking to a place or a person he's talking to a person father abraham have mercy on me and send lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for i am tormented in this flame what a prideful jerk this guy still is even though he's burning in hell right he's like hey send that poor guy over here to serve me still right look at look at verse 26 i'm sorry verse 25 but abraham said right so this is abraham speaking right because places don't talk right does boise talk to you does nampa talk to you does caldwell call you on the phone i don't think so look at first but abraham said son remember that thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy good things and likewise lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented telling him the reality hey you made your choice you chose not to get saved verse 26 and beside all this between us and you there is a great gulf fix so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot neither can they pass to us that would come from thence and this is obviously we don't understand everything that goes on in eternity it's really hard to wrap your mind around this but just for uh for context say go to the last verse in isaiah i know i've read this here within the last couple weeks but let's take a look at this because there's a situation here with the last verse in isaiah that that it's very similar to this so turn to isaiah chapter 66 isaiah 66 with that in mind right so abraham's saying look you can't come here we can't come there we can't help you out you know and it's hard to understand that but this this concept or this this glimpse that god gives us into eternity you can find that here in isaiah so isaiah 66 look at let's see here look at verse 21 it says and i will also take them for priests and for levites saith the lord for as the new heavens and the new earth which i will make shall remain before me saith the lord so shall your seed and your name remain now look at verse 23 and now it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another and from one sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me saith the lord verse 24 and they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me for their worm shall not die neither shall their fire be quenched and they shall be in a boring unto all flesh what do we just read in mark chapter 9 that hell is a place where the fire doesn't die and neither does the worm right and god is saying here in this chapter that there's coming a day when this is all said and done after the millennium has passed that we will go to the shores of the lake of fire and basically see the people that have transgressed against god i know it's not a pleasant subject but it's in the bible right and so that's kind of like a similar situation to what you're reading about in luke 16 that's the closest example i could find for you so look go back to luke and look at verse 27 so remember he said and beside all this there's a between us and you there's a great goal fixed so that they which would pass from hands to you cannot neither can they pass to us that would come from that so verse 27 then he said i pray thee therefore uh father that thou would ascend him to my father's house for i have five brethren that they may testify unto them lest they also come into this place of torment verse 29 abraham saith unto him they have moses and the prophets let him hear them you see moses attitudes like hey you know they have the bible they have god's word why didn't he get to hear them you know faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of god verse 30 he and he said and he said nay father abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent meaning they will turn they will change from not believing to believing verse 31 and he said unto him if they hear not moses and the prophets neither will they persuaded though one rose from the dead and you can see that is true i mean how many miracles do we see in the bible where it doesn't change people's mind for example when elijah uh had called fire down from heaven on the altar and it you know it burnt the sacrifice that was wetted right i mean that was a miracle and the prophets of bale the prophets of satan they saw that and they still didn't get saved right and it's because they had already been rejected by god they had already been given up i mean how many miracles did jesus do in front of the pharisees and the sadducees and the bible says they just would not believe right and that's abraham's attitude here he's just basically saying hey if they're not going to hear moses and the prophets they're not going to believe that's that's too bad that's where they're going to hell so we're done there you can lose your place there and lose luke 16 there's just hopefully that was something you can take away from there luke 16 is talking about a person named abraham not a place and again you're not going to find a place called abraham's bosom in the bible so john chapter 3 verse 13 why don't you guys turn back to genesis go to genesis chapter 5 and i'll read for you a couple verses here so we're going to shift gears here a little bit we're just going to talk about some examples of people uh in heaven in the old testament and the reason why i want to show you guys this is because this is another verse that people are going to throw at you is john chapter 3 verse 13 where it says and no man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven even the son of man which is in heaven and that's what the dispensational say well so well see the bible says that no man hath ascended into heaven at any time well that is true that no man of his own accord has ascended into heaven at any time right the bible says that when people die they are gathered right they are carried by the angels into heaven genesis you're there in genesis 5 stay there i'm gonna read for you genesis 25 verse 8 which says then abraham gave up the ghost and died in a good old age an old man and full of years and was gathered to his people right so when abraham died he was gathered to his people he didn't go to start a new place called abraham's bosom right it says he was gathered to his people he was obviously taken up he was gathered by someone by something else so you're there in genesis 5 look at verse 24 and enoch walked with god and he was not for god took him and you might think okay that's kind of vague how are you going to really use this as a proof text here well where does god dwell even even the people that wrote what i read for you in the beginning of the service they said that god dwells in heaven right well what does this verse say here genesis 524 and enoch walked with god right meaning he was pleasing to god he was sold out for god and he was not meaning he was taken he was he was not existing anymore and then it says for god took him so where did god take him god obviously took him to heaven where he dwells okay it wouldn't make any sense for him to take him and put him in abraham's bosom and then just be hands off that doesn't make any sense god took possession of him is what it's saying there because we know that god dwells in heaven all right go over to genesis 16 i'm sorry go to deuteronomy 33 so hopefully you kept your place there in deuteronomy 32 i already read deuteronomy i'm sorry i already read for you uh genesis 16 five about abraham sarai and hagar or abram so let's take a look at this deuteronomy 33 deuteronomy 33 look at verse 1 and this is the blessing where with moses the man of god blessed the children of israel before his death so we're talking about moses's death here and remember what are we dealing with here we're trying to answer the question where the bible says okay well if no man hath ascended to heaven then how did people go to heaven in the old testament well there's tons of examples number one was what we just read in genesis 5 where enoch was taken by god god dwells in heaven it's obviously took him up there so deuteronomy 33 look at verse 2 and he said the lord came from sinai and rose up from seer unto them he shined forth from mount peron and he came with ten thousands of saints from his right hand went a fiery law for them so the bible says that when god gave the law to moses he came with ten thousands of saints where does god dwell he dwells in heaven where do those saints come from they came from heaven he didn't take him out of abraham's bosom see because the idea here is that they god couldn't look on on man or on on people in abraham's bosoms because their sins weren't paid for yet so he had to keep his distance from him but it doesn't look like he's keeping his distance from these people here does it it says and he came with ten thousands of saints from his right hand went a fiery law from them go to ax chapter two i'm going to read for you second kings chapter two verse one which says and it came to pass when the lord would take elijah up into heaven by a whirlwind that elijah went from elijah from gilgal or with elijah from so while you're going there to ax chapter two another proof text is that elijah went up right which direction is up that way where did he go to heaven so remember this you can write it down second kings chapter two verse one right first verse and second kings two two two one just remember that and it came to pass when the lord would take up elijah into heaven by whirlwind so where did elijah go he went into heaven i watched the dispensationalist get presented this question one time and he just said i don't know i don't understand that verse you know i just don't get it because he went up to heaven because you are crooked you don't have doctrine that's why you don't understand it second kings 2 11 says and it came to pass as they still went on and talked that behold there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire and parted them both asunder member asunder in half and elijah went up by whirlwind into heaven do you really need more proof than that i mean come on i was going to go to uh to to first samuel and talk about the witch at indoor and and all that but you know what if you don't get it by now you're just not going to get it okay so okay you're there in acts chapter two the reason why we preach against this doctrine of abraham's bosom is because it is a attack on the resurrection it is an attack on the resurrection of jesus christ and i'm going to prove that to you look at verse 22 acts chapter 2 verse 22 you men of israel hear these words jesus of nazareth a man approved of god among you by miracles and wonders and signs which god did by him in the midst of you as ye yourselves also known him being delivered by the determinant council and for knowledge of god you have taken in by wicked hands have crucified and slain and whom god hath raised up having loosed the pains of death that's important here right let's look at this and whom god hath raised up who did god raise up he rose up jesus christ having loosed the pains of death why does he say pains of death if jesus went straight to abraham's bosom or to hell just to preach it wouldn't be a painful thing right and it's not talking about the physical crucifixion although that was painful obviously very painful but whom god hath raised up right having loosed the pains of death so you got to picture that right he's dead he's buried in the tomb and god hath raised him up right from hell that's what it's talking about have loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holding of it the tomb couldn't hold him and look at verse 26 so right here the bible says that jesus went to hell right after he died for three days three nights matthew chapter 12 verse 40 now look at verse 28 thy countenance men and brethren let me freely speak unto you the patriarch david that he is both dead and buried and his sepulcher is with us unto this day therefore being a prophet and knowing that god had sworn with an oath to him that the fruit of his loins according to the flesh he would raise up christ to sit on his throne now look at verse 31 now if if i were to hand out sheets of paper to you and say write down what the resurrection is would you be able to answer that would you be able to get that question right the only way you're gonna get it is in verse 31 here look at this he's seeing this before spake of the resurrection of christ so if anybody asks you what is the definition of resurrection you have to say this following part of the verse number one that his soul was not left in hell neither his flesh did see corruption so there are two components to that to the the definition of resurrection does everybody see that resurrection of christ that his soul was not left in hell neither his flesh did see corruption and the reason why i read all those verses before because you could see that god loosed the pains of death and that he rejoiced to see that he wasn't going to be holding of the death right that proves that he went to that that tormentful that horrible place called hell jesus went to hell to pay for your sins the bible says for the wages of sin is death that is talking about the second death what we oh what we've earned for being sinners is hell we are all we all deserve hell god saved us he paid that bill for us but because he's perfect hell couldn't hold him right he couldn't hold him and neither could the tomb so it says that the resurrection of christ that his soul was not left in hell neither his flesh did see corruption so we're done with that go back to deuteronomy 32 where we first started it's important for you to understand that there's two parts to the definition of resurrection that his soul was not left in hell right he became the wage for us he became the wage of death for us he paid that bill for us and neither did his flesh see corruption it was important for everybody to understand that that the doctrine of abraham's bosom is an attack on the resurrection of jesus christ they say that his soul did not go to hell right they'll they'll again they'll just want to take you back to the greek or the hebrew but look hell means hell it means hell from the first time it appears into the bible all the way through revelation right it it's ridiculous there's no place called abraham's bosom jesus went to hell for three days three nights to pay for our sins and you just that's what the bible says and we need to believe that so deuteronomy 32 let's finish this off here look at verse 29 so i just want to leave you with three quick things here to think about about doctrine so number one is that we need to consider the latter end of what false doctrine does we need to consider the latter end right we need to consider the consequences of what doctrine does false doctrine does to people deuteronomy 32 look at verse 29 oh that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider remember the the beginning of the chapter starts off with doctrine right moses is teaching them these words to sing as a song to hide god's word into their heart so that they might not sin against him right we need to be the same way but what's the point what's the point of doctrine verse 29 oh that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their ladder and we need to consider our ladder and we need to be prudent meaning we need to look well to the ways of our going right we need to understand that false doctrine is destructive now point number two look at verse 30 point number two is believing in or tolerating false doctrine leaves you powerless it leaves you it left them powerless to run their nation it's going to leave us powerless to run our own christian lives so verse 32 look at verse 30 how should one chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight except the rock had sold them and the lord had shut them up for the lord shall judge his people and repent himself for his servants when he seeth that their power is gone and there is none shut up or left so point number two is believing or tolerating false doctrine leaves you powerless and that's what god's teaching them through this song right that when we forsake doctrine when we get complacent when we reject it when we don't heed to it it leaves us powerless and then we don't get that power that you read in verse 30 where it says how should one chase a thousand right you know what that reminds me of that reminds me of this church that we had 17 people out soul winning this week right we've been getting people saved you know we're actually in and i'm not trying to be prideful or boastful but we really are what probably the only church in this entire state or maybe not this state but at least in this city here that's actually doing the work and why we're a small group we meet in a house we don't have some big fancy building we just started a month ago how is that because we heed to doctrine right that's what this church is about it's about following the bible no matter what right it's about god's righteous judgments it's about his power right it doesn't matter how big a number we are if we do things the way god wants us to do them the way he described them in this chapter here right look at verse 30 how should one chase a thousand how is one church going to chase 250,000 people in the city of boise what's going to be by heeding to god's words in his doctrine that's how it's going to happen right and that and then he says how and two put ten thousand to flight except the rock had sold them and the lord had shut them up so obviously we get our power from following god's teachings in his words right we need to we need to ascribe to attribute greatness to our god we do that by trusting him by our by our continual growth right by by by you know listening to preaching by reading the bible by meditating by thinking on these things and like i said last week right by gaining knowledge right it's it takes maintenance right man we got to continually get stronger in knowledge so we can apply that to wisdom right because that's how we forsake being prideful remember knowledge puffeth up so the way around that is to get wise by putting your knowledge into action and therefore god will be with us and lead us in in strength now one more point here point number three we need to get our doctrines from clear teachings in the bible and you know what i read to you today that was clear there is no place called the abraham's bosom right it just doesn't exist it's not in there we need to believe what the bible says we need to get our teachings from clear statements in the bible because you know as you read the bible people and you're going to find out tonight when we start judges people did a lot of weird things in the bible a lot of and you're going to read and be like what in the world is that you know and people are going to come at you with those weird stories and they're going to say hey well what about this what about this guy that had you know eight wives or a thousand wives you know are you going to be able to answer that and and the answer to that is that we have to get our doctrine from the clear statements of the bible right god clearly said those things were wrong and you need to know where he said that and so not everything that every character said in the bible is right but every statement that the holy ghost says in the bible is right so when you're reading this here and it's the narrator talking it's the holy ghost talking it's the it's god talking those are what are clear statements those are what we go by if that makes sense so look at verse 31 deuteronomy 32 31 it says for their rock is not as our rock even our enemies themselves being judges for their vine is the vine of sodom and their fields of gomorrah their grapes are grapes of gall their clusters are bitter their wine is the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asps and then verse 34 says is not this laid up in store with me and sealed up among my treasures for their rock is not our rock is what he says in verse 31 you know we need to understand that we need to pick the rock of the bible we need to pick the rock of jesus christ to get our teachings from our clear statements our clear doctrines from not from what somebody wants to to teach out of some greek lexicon somewhere or some hebrew lexicon or some long chart like in tim lehay's book that's ridiculous get your teachings from the bible get them from the clear statements that we can understand in the bible you know what and the result of that is going to be that god's power will be amongst us right we'll be able to continue to do the first works that god has called us to do we'll be uh able to fight the battles that are coming because we all know from the last couple weeks they're coming so let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer lord thank you for this church lord i thank you for um all that you do for us and continue to do for us lord please motivate us not to be duped by false doctrine and to always come to your word for the clear teachings and understandings that it has in jesus name i pray amen